Charity Christmas light show BANNED by HOA—homeowner appeals to Supreme Court

A man has requested that the Supreme Court take up his case against his former homeowners association in Idaho over the Christmas light display and fundraiser he held at his home which the HOA claimed violated community rules. In the petition to the court, filed on November 13, Jeremy Morris, also known as the "Christmas lawyer," noted that the initial complaint alleged the West Hayden Estates Homeowners Association "was motivated by religious animus." 

The HOA has been accused of "writing a discriminatory letter referencing non-Christians (avowed atheists) in the neighborhood while the Morrises were under contract to buy a house," "contacting the sellers about not wanting the Morris family’s beliefs pressed on others in the neighborhood," engaging in "intimidation by circulating letters to neighbors before the Morrises moved in and continuing to circulate letters by hand in violation of the rules," and selectively enforcing community rules "by admitting to neighbors and on tape recordings that alleged Morris-family violations did not actually exist, while Board Members openly violated CCRs with impunity."

The HOA was also accused of making death threats, vandalizing the display, and assaulting multiple female visitors to the display. 

According to Fox News, Morris made an offer on a house in the neighborhood just after throwing his first light show at his prior home in 2014. He told the HOA that he would be planning to repeat the event in 2015, but the HOA attempted to put a stop to it, saying that it violated community rules. 

A letter sent to Morris by the HOA in January 2015 stated in part, "I am somewhat hesitant in bringing up the fact that some of our residents are non-Christians or of another faith and I don’t even want to think of the problems that could bring up. It is not the intention of the Board to discourage you from becoming part of our great neighborhood but we do not wish to become entwined in any expensive litigation to enforce longstanding rules and regulations and fill our neighborhood with hundreds of people and possible undesirables."

Morris was sent a letter threatening legal action when he began setting up lights for another show. He went forward with it, bringing in musicians, a children’s choir, a live nativity scene, and rented shuttle buses to bring visitors to the event. Volunteers directed cars through the streets. 

Neighbors allegedly harassed spectators and the Morris family received threats ahead of the 2016 show. One confrontation partially caught on camera showed a neighbor offering to "take care of him."

Morris sued the HOA in January of 2017. A jury sided with Morris, but Judge B. Lynn Winmill flipped the verdict and ordered Morris to pay over $111,000 in attorney fees to the HOA. The judge concluded that the case was not about religious discrimination, but rather about violations of community rules. In 2020, Morris brought his case to the 9th Circuit, with the three-judge panel siding with Winmill’s overturning of the jury verdict. The panel also determined that there was enough evidence that supported the jury’s conclusion that the HOA board’s "conduct was motivated at least in part by the Morisses’ religious expression." The ruling from the 9th Circuit allowed for a new trial, but Morris appealed the case to the Supreme Court. 

Morris told Fox News, "Who would have thought that nine Justices of the United States Supreme Court are about to sit down over Christmas and read a legal case involving a fundraiser to help families with children suffering from cancer that involves Dolly the Camel, 700,000 Christmas lights, a children’s choir and the REAL SANTA CLAUS testifying in federal court."

"The right to celebrate Christmas in accordance with our family’s faith traditions, to use our property to express that Christian faith tradition, and the right to have a unanimous jury verdict protected after 15 hours of deliberations — all are at the core of Constitutional protections and 250 years of American jurisprudence."

In a 2022 video, Morris announced that he and his family were moving out of Idaho, saying, "A lot of people that should’ve had my back … really stabbed my family in the back. They turned their back and many have done things or said things that I believe are very hurtful."